The Texas man was sentenced to four months in custody for smuggling six rare baby spider monkeys across the Mexican border and attempting to sell them on Facebook, officials said.
Salmado Gared Duffer, 33, has been ordered to serve six months of home confinement and pay $23,501.70 in reparations to isolate three of the six endangered monkeys at the San Diego Zoo, according to the California Attorney General’s office.
“The crime torn apart a baby monkey from its mother a few weeks ago, destroying vulnerable ecosystems, putting vulnerable species at risk, poses serious public health risks,” said U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon.
“This is not just an economic crime. It’s a serious and permanent injury to both wildlife and public safety,” he added.
Dafar was used with monkeys in June 2022 and July 2023, initially logged in Facebook messages sent to potential customers.
“I have a monkey coming to my two-week baby monkey… I’m a spider monkey… [I’ll] They will send me from California so please let me know when I’m here,” Duffer wrote to his client.
“It’s Spider Monkey Toast[e] I’ll go kindly[e]S 15k or more, but I ask 8k,” he added.
Duffer is said to have sent another customer a photo of the monkey under the heat lamp. Another message has been showing a baby monkey wearing diapers since August 2023.
Duffer also appeared to believe he was smarter than the average Spider-Monkey smuggler, calling the suspect “silly” who “silly” smuggling seven Simians.
“And all adults make lots of noise and activity. The baby is the most sleepy and hidden,” Duffer wrote when someone sent him a news article about his bust.
Authorities noted that at least three Duffers of the monkeys smuggled into the US were not quarantined.
“Some of the most dangerous zoonotic diseases are those that migrate from primates to humans, such as Ebola, Marburg, Monkeypox and Sim’s immunodeficiency virus,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The three monkeys were taken to the San Diego Zoo and were subsequently quarantined and transferred to the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago.
The fate of the other three monkeys remains unknown with smuggled smuggling, officials added.
The endangered spider monkey remains a hot item for smugglers operating along the US-Mexican border.
Spider monkeys are named after the habit of using their long tails to hang from trees.
They are one of the 25 most threatened primates in the world. Wildlife Conservation Association (WCS).
